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ACQUIRING A VOCABULARY
ACQUIRING A VOCABULARY The knowledge of words is the gate of scholarship. — WILSON. The term "vocabulary " has a special as well as a general meaning. All vocabularies are indeed based upon the common everyday words of the language, but each special vocabulary possesses a number of words of peculiar value for its own objects. Such words may be used in other vocabularies also, but the fact that they are suited to a unique order of expression marks them as of special value to a particular craft or carmg. I In this respect the writer differs not at all from the poet, the novelist, the scientist, the traveler. To his everyday stock he must add words of value for his special work. The careful study of the diction of a single great story will yield richer results than the hasty reading of a score, be they never so famous. No one truly possesses a word until he knows its exact meaning, understands its relation to other words, and has it ready for use. How can this be accomplished ? 1. Gather Words from the Stories of Effective writers. Determination and method will do wonders. When you see a familiar word used in an unfamiliar sense, jot it down, look it up, and master it. I have in mind a writer and speaker of superior attainments who acquired his vocabulary by noting all new words he heard or read. These he mastered and put into use. Soon his vocabulary became large, varied, and exact. Use a new word accurately five times and it is yours. 2. Form the Dictionary Habit Do not be content with your general knowledge of a word. Press your inquiry until you have grasped its individual shade of meaning and usage. Fluency may become despicable, but accuracy never. The dictionary contains the crystallized usage of intellectual giants. No one who would write effectively dare despise its definitions and discriminations. 3. Seek Diligently for the Right Word This involves a careful study of synonyms and antonyms. Fortunately, there is no lack of excellent manuals for ready reference. " I amgrowing so peevish about my writing, " says Flaubert. " I am like a man whose ear is true, but who plays falsely on the violin : his fingers refuse to reproduce precisely those sounds of which he has the inward sense. Then the tears come rolling down from the poor scraper's eyes and the bow falls from his hand. "2 The same brilliant Frenchman sent this sound advice to Guy de Maupassant : " Whatever may be the thing which one wishes to say, there is but one word for expressing it, only one verb to animate it, only one adjective to qualify it. It is essential to search for this word, for this verb, for this adjective, until they are discovered, and to be satisfied with nothing else. " Walter Savage Landor once wrote, " I hate false words, and seek with care, difficulty and moroseness those that fit the thing. " So did Sentimental Tommy, as related by James M. Barrie in his admirable novel bearing his hero's name as a title. 8No wonder T. Sandys became an author and a lion ! Tommy, with another lad, is writing an essay on " A Day in Church, " in competition for a university scholarship. He gets on finely until he pauses for lack of a word. For nearly an hour he searches for this elusive thing, until suddenly he is told that the allotted time is up, and he has lost Barrie may tell the rest : Essay! It was no more an essay than a twig is a tree, for the gawk had stuck in the middle of his second page. Yes, stuck is the right expression, as his chagrined teacher had to admit when the boy was cross-examined. He had not been "up to some of his tricks"; he had stuck, and his explanations, as you will admit, merely emphasized his incapacity. He had brought himself to public scorn for lack of a word. What word? they asked testily; but even now he could not tell. He had wanted a Scotch word that would signify how many people were in church, and it was on the tip of his tongue, but would come no farther. Puckle was nearly the word, but it did not mean so many people as he meant. The hour had gone by just like winking; he had forgotten all about time while search ing his mind for the word. The other five examiners were furious. . . . "You little tattie doolie, " Cathro roared, " were there not a dozen words to wile from if you had an ill-will to puckle? What ailed you at manzy, or —" "I thought of manzy, " replied Tommy, wofully, for he was ashamed of himself, "but—but a manzy's a swarm. It would mean that the folk in the kirk were buzzing thegither like bees, instead of sitting still. " " Even if it does mean that, " said Mr. Duthie, with impatience, " what was the need of being so particular? Surely the art of essay-writing consists in using the first word that comes and hurrying on. " "That's howI did, " said the proud McLauchlan successful competitor. . . . " I see, " interposed Mr. Gloag, " that McLauchlan speaks of there being a mask of people in the church. Mask is a fine Scotch word. " "I thought of mask, " whimpered Tommy, "but that would mean the kirk was crammed, and I just meant it to be middling full. " " Flow would have done, " suggested Mr. Lorrimer. " Flow's but a handful, " said Tommy. " Curran, then, you jackanapes!" " Curran's no enough. " Mr. Lorrimer flung up his hands in despfir. " I wanted something between curran and mask, " said Tommy, doggedly, yet almost at the crying. Mr. Ogilvy, who had been hiding his admiration with difficulty, spread a net for him. " Yen said you wanted a word that meant middling full. Well, why did you not say middling full —or fell mask?" "Yes, why not?" demanded the ministers, unconsciously caught in the net. " I wanted one word, " replied Tommy, unconsciously avoiding it. " You jewel!" muttered Mr. Ogilvy under his breath, but Mr. Cathro would have banged the boy's head had not the ministers interfered. "It is so easy, too, to find the right word, " said Mr. Gloag. " It's no ; it's as difficult as to hit a squirrel, " cried Tommy, and again Mr. Ogilvy nodded approval. . . And then an odd thing happened. As they were preparing to leave the school having previously rim Tommy out by the neck, the door opened a little and there appeared in the aperture the face of Tommy, tear-stained but excited. " I ken the word now, " he cried, " it came to me a' at once; it is hande I " Mr. Ogilvy . . . said in an ecstasy to himself, "He had to think of it till he got it —and he got it. The laddie is a genius " 4. Discuss Words With Those Who Know Them Since the short-story closely follows the diction of everyday speech, many useful words may be acquired in conversation with cultivated men. And when such discussion takes the form of disputation as to the meanings and usages of words, it must prove doubly valuable. The development of word-power marches with the growth of individuality. 5. Do not Overlook the Value of Translating languages 6. Study Word Derivations A flood of light may stream over a subject when the origin of a word is disclosed. A prefix or a suffix may essentially change the force of the stem, as in masterfulandmaster-ly, contempt-ible and contempt-uous, envi-ous and envi-able. Thus to study words in groups, according to their stems, prefixes and suffixes, is to gain a mastery over their shades of meaning, and introduce us to ether related words. 7. Do not Favor one Set or Kind of Words more than Another " Sixty years and more ago, Lord Brougham, addressing the students of the University of Glasgow, laid down the rule that the native (Anglo-Saxon) part of our vocabulary was to be favored at the expense of that other part which has come from the Latin and Greek. The rule was an impossible one, and Lord Brougham himself never tried seriously to observe it; nor, in truth, has any great writer made the attempt. Not only is our language highly composite, but the component words have, in De Quincey's phrase, ' happily coalesced. ' It is easy to jest at words in osityand-ation, as ' dictionary ' words, and the like. But even Lord Brougham would have found it difficult to dispense with pomposityandimagination. "